Menu

Slow job creation continues to drag on the economy, according to the Consumer Reports Index for March. This month's findings show that, although the tide of job losses has been stemmed, the level of job creation needed to fuel a consumer recovery has not developed.

Americans' confidence in their ability to retire appears to be stabilizing, now that the economic volatility of the recession has abated, but their self-described preparations for retirement continue to erode, according to the 2010 Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS) released by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and Mathew Greenwald and Associates, a market research firm.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' (OPEC) crude oil production rose to 29.31 million barrels per day (b/d) in February, an increase of 60,000 (b/d) from an estimated January level of 29.25 million b/d, according to a just-released Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials and analysts.

The 30-year fixed mortgage rate on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace is currently 4.76 percent, down four basis points from 4.80 percent compared to this same time last week. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate fluctuated between 4.76 and 4.82 during the past week.

As a result of the economic downturn, university students rate job security at a potential employer ahead of pay and benefits, according to a survey conducted by KPMG, a global network of firms providing audit, tax and advisory services.

U.S.-based companies led the world in completing merger-and-acquisition (M&A) deals with emerging or high-growth market companies in the second half of 2009, nearly tripling the number of acquisitions made by the second-ranked country, according to KPMG International's latest Emerging Markets International Acquisition Tracker (EMIAT) study.

The Conference Board Employment Trends Index™ (ETI) rose in February for the sixth consecutive month. The index now stands at 93.5, up from January's 93.2. During the past six months, the index increased by 13.4 percent (annual rate), the highest six-month growth rate since 1994.

The unemployment rate for the OECD area fell slightly to 8.7% in January 2010, reflecting drops of 0.3 percentage point in the United States and Japan. However, the latest figures for the United States show that the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 9.7% in February. Rates in the Euro area stabilized in January at 9.9% and in many countries, notably France and Italy, rates continued their recent upward trend.

A new Fact Sheet released by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, based on data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, shows that in 2009 median weekly earnings for women were $657 compared with $819 for men, a female-to-male-earnings ratio of 80.2 percent (making for a weekly gender wage gap of 19.8 percent). While the weekly gender wage gap narrowed slightly in 2009, it is still above its lowest point of 19 percent in 2005. Only full-time workers are included in this measure. An alternative measure of the gender wage gap, based on median annual earnings, is not yet available for 2009; in 2008 it was 22.9 percent.

EU Employment and Social Affairs Ministers agreed on a new facility to provide loans to people who have lost their jobs and want to start or further develop their own small business. The European Microfinance Facility will have a starting budget of €100 million which could leverage more than €500 million in cooperation with international financial institutions such as the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group. The initiative is part of the EU's response to the crisis and is especially targeted at people who cannot normally obtain credit because of the economic crisis and the current lack of credit supply.